The Viking Views
The Rock Revolution Tuesday, November 29, 2011 By Katie Livick
In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, and during a wave of shady politics, came the rebellious cry against the establishment from millions of young people. To express this anger, they created forms of music with heavy drums, calm guitar, or screeching vocals. With genres such as rock-and-roll, punk, reggae, and later, disco, the 70s was a time of pushing limits and breaking the once solid boundaries of music norms. Mr. Dave Reese, a social studies teacher at Hoover , said music of the 70s was carefree and fun compared to most music of the 60s. “[70s music] wasn’t weighed down with politics and the burdens of the world,” he said. “Everything from the 60s was about getting out of the Vietnam War, wanting world peace and changing the world. The 70s was fun and finally looked past some of the more serious issues; which was a good thing.” Mr. Mike Russ, a special education teacher at Hoover , said he disagreed that the music was unburdened and that there was still an edge of seriousness. “A lot of the music was just straight rebellion from young people,” he said. “The Vietnam War was still a big part of most of the genres from the 70s, it’s like the war started all [the genres]. Many people were anti-establishment, so they were against their parents, as well as other people’s parents, rich people, and the corruption in government. The young people thought they deserved a say in things and wanted to express that concern” According to Classic-Rock-Music.com, the 70s were not the only generation of great rock music, and music in general with great emotion in songs. “While the term ‘classic rock’ is most widely used today to refer to the famous rock and roll bands of yesteryear, the so-called dinosaur acts that permeate the airwaves of commercial radio stations in every market, what makes a great rock band is not the year their album was released, but the passion and energy put forth in the riffs.” Senior Rob Kerr said that 70s music really set a new bar for music. “Music in every generation is going to seem rebellious, but the 70s did have more rebellion than previous times,” he said. “The music showed more emotion with distortion and loudness; you didn’t necessarily need to know how to play well to display what you felt so being a famous musician became more accessible.” Russ said some of his favorite bands were among the great rock groups of the early 70s. “The greatest of the early 70s was probably The Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, or the Allman Brothers Band,” he said. Reese said he agreed about The Rolling Stones being among his favorites, but he has many more from other genres. “For rock, The Who and The Rolling Stones can’t be overlooked,” he said. “Bob Marley was huge, but Eric Clapton helped popularize reggae. David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust with glam rock, the Police with punk. New wave was relatively good too especially Blonide and The Clash; there was no one group that I could pick.” Kerr said he preferred two specific genres from the 70s along with groups from those genres. “I really like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd,” he said. “Led Zeppelin is just the definition of rock, you know, real heavy drums and loud guitar, but Pink Floyd is more spaced out a cerebral, but I like the difference between the two.” Despite being in the same decade, Russ said there is a big difference in the genres in early 70s and late 70s. “In the beginning, rock was a lot more popular: bands like Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and female artists like Janice Joplin or Joan Baez,” he said. “By the late 70s, disco came in, and then it was just disco-mania with the Bee Gees even though rock was still popular. I tried not to pay attention to them.” Reese said he agreed that the late 70s were more about disco than any other type of music, and that the Bee Gees were a huge part of the disco movement even here in North Canton . “Past ’75, disco really took over and was incredibly huge,” he said. “The Bee Gees really had the second wave of their career with disco and made big bucks. Even here disco was popular. There were disco-techs like The Galaxy near Myers Lake that was the place for college kids to go.” According to Classic-Rock-Music.com, classic rock music became a standard during the 70s, but originated from past generations from people like Elvis Presley. “Though 70s rock music is the gold medal standard by which most rate the genre, rock music through the decades has had many glorious triumphs.” When the 70s was over, Reese said that it led to the creation of many popular future genres like 80s metal, grunge and rap. “In any succeeding generations, the genres will rebel against each other,” he said. “Once a genre becomes accepted, it becomes the norm; it tends to tone down and become less risky or dangerous. Even the host of Soul Train, a popular African-American soul music show, was against rap when it first became popular.” Russ said he agreed and that the music and attitudes of the 70s was unprecedented. “It’s a fact that the 70s is probably a generation we’ll never go back to,” he said. “It was tumultuous with movements and demonstrations that were as huge as the peace movements of the 60s all the time. When someone thinks about how this generation is bad, it is nothing compared to the rebelliousness of the 70s.” |